Assume the Formation – Playground Tactics / The Wildhouse live

Whilst the world and his wife were out to see MBV at the Barras, MPT was taking in a show in more low key surroundings in Dundee.

The chance to see the Wildhouse and Playground Tactics on the same bill was the main attraction. But the chance to catch Bobby Stickah again and two acts I hadn’t seen before was more than enough to seal the deal.

Unfortunately Mr Stickah called in on the sick-ah so it was down to the Rag and Bone Man to open the show. Swamp trash blues with alternately moothie and guitars and a one man band style drumkit, it was a short but entertaining show.

Next up – the chance to catch up with the Wildhouse for the first time in over 2 years. Reassuringly they remain very much the Wildhouse and this set seemed pitched somewhere between their occasional “pop” outings and their more out there performances.

They started off melodically but things quickly got noisier culminating in Peet throwing his guitar away from the stage during an epic ‘My Life As Pop Art’.

In a parallel universe somewhere, the Wildhouse are a cult success inflicting their brand of melodic chaos on an international audience on a regular. In this one, they are an obscure pearl to be treasured by a select few.

Whilst still in their infancy, Playground Tactics are already showing the potential of becoming a cult hit. Arguably they seem to be getting more shambolic every time I see them but it only seems to make them more endearing.

Euan admitted the show was something of a public rehearsal (they started with little more than the intro to a new tune which they’ve not even finished writing!) but they seemed to be honing their tunes to ever more concise levels of economy such that even having some sort of finish to some of the tunes is an unnecessary luxury.

Yet underneath it all, there are unquestionably good, maybe even great songs. Time will tell.

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